minutes later (I complained about it pretty quickly) I got a suggestion from a friend of mine:
I'm considering it.
Right now I'm just being called in to fill out a questionnaire. Just today I was talking to a classmate about how much stuff we have to get done in the next couple of weeks. I don't have time to be on a jury. But not going on Monday means I could be fined $1000 or put in jail for 30 days. And I really don't have time for that.
... to discover that we're not exactly what we thought we were?
------------------
I can't remember where I heard that, but I just saw it written down on a page of random notes I've taken and I remembered how much I like it.
I think it can be a great thing to discover that you're capable of being more than you were before. Of doing more, of learning more, of accomplishing more... and I like the idea of it possibly surprising ourselves more than anyone else.
Looking on different job websites a month or so ago I stumbled onto a listing for public health officers in the Air Force. Awesome. I filled out the form, and kind of forgot about it. My brother-in-law mentioned contacting them myself (they sent me an email with contact info after filling out the form), suggesting that since it's such a long process, it wouldn't hurt to get things started (he's in the middle of it himself right now).
Skip ahead a couple of weeks...
I got a text and an email from a recruiter yesterday asking me to call if I was still interested.
I called today and talked to Technical Sergeant Jaron Wagner.
After he confirmed that they were indeed looking for public health degrees, he talked me through what needed to be done and then said he'd call me back when his computer was working and he could access the questions he needs to ask me to get things started. (maybe questions like 'are you a terrorist?' - no / 'are you a true American?' - i didn't vote for obama, so yes, / 'what are your favorite colors?' - red, white and blue of course)
Who knows what'll happen. Maybe it won't go anywhere. But it could be fun while it lasts.
hackers look like this, right? so it's easy to spot them...
When I got home from a movie* tonight I saw that I had an email notification on my phone, as well as an alert notification. Not sure what the alert was for, I clicked on it and saw that it was having problems accessing my google account and it needed my password.
I entered it.
It didn't let me in.
I entered my password again.
It didn't let me in.
I went to my computer and opened up my email.
When I typed in my password it told me that they had detected suspicious activity and that I needed to get a verification code sent to my phone and then change my password. I did this, it let me in, and I saw that I had had some 'mail delivery notification' emails sent back to me saying that this meaningful message - http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eakononov%2Ecom%2Fimages%2Fagu%2Ephp - could not be sent to: (and it listed some different email addresses). I had two different emails like that, so I hit a reply all on what I had apparently sent and apologized for the email, saying I changed my password, so it wouldn't happen again.
After this was over I had a quick freak-out moment where I worried about my checking account (it's been hacked into and drained before, so I knew a moment of panic when I thought it might have happened again). I quickly signed into that and saw that I had nothing to worry about. The $5.13 in my account hadn't been touched (give or take some change :).
I then google-searched, 'how do email accounts get hacked' and this page came up. Nothing too helpful there. I already knew that I needed to change my password to stop it thanks to my brother-in-law who told me what to do when my yahoo account got hacked.
Good times. *I saw 'limitless'. My first inclination is to say that I didn't really like it. My second one is to wonder if I need to see it again. My third is to remember a particularly disturbing scene and decide that I was right the first time. If you see it, let me know what you think.
I really love it when he wags his tail in his sleep. I've caught him doing it a few times. Today he was wagging pretty vigorously for a while. I love that he has happy dreams. He's just a happy dog.
What I don't love -
- is when he licks my flip flops:
The left one has been thoroughly moisturized. Ignore the tearing you see on the right toe, that's just from me using them a lot. (Because I love them. Because they are so comfortable. And I'm probably going to get more to replace them when I need to. Well, not anymore, I just checked adidas website and they're not selling them anymore. So sad. Maybe I'll get these instead - in green or yellow.) At least he doesn't chew them. But the licking is gross. Especially when I don't know he's licked them and I slide my feet into them. It feels disgusting.
Good thing I love him more than I hate this habit of his.
this picture has nothing to do with my post, but I googled 'shadow' and it came up in the images. i really like it. 'shadows of the past' by lubomir bukov found here
This morning I took Max and Dingo in to get groomed again.
Last time I took them in (separate visits that time), everything went easily and smoothly. They both walked in with the groomers just fine. No worries.
This time they remembered.
Last time Dingo didn't even look back when they took him to the cage.
This time he didn't look back, but he started barking once he was in the cage.
Last time they told me, 'Max was an angel.'
This time as soon as he got past the counter he started pulling back on the leash, refusing to go (maybe Dingo's barks were warning him?).
Last time I walked away feeling only a little bad.
This time I felt really bad (for the dogs and the groomers), hoping that as soon as I left they'd calm down. I figured that the faster I was gone, the faster they'd get over it. So I high-tailed it out of there as soon as I could (like a bandaid, one motion, right off!*).
I'm sure they'll be fine. If I didn't think so, I wouldn't have left them there.
While I was apologizing for their behavior, one of the groomers reminded (and reassured me), 'If we didn't like this job, we wouldn't be doing it.'
ps - happy st. pat's day! someday, sometime, someyear, i'm going to make it to Chicago for st. patrick's day. and i'll see this. and it will be awesome.
... you can send a text completely out of the blue that says, 'I just threw up in my mouth.' - and you get a response that shows she knows exactly what you were talking about. (:
in other news - Max grabbed food off the table tonight which caused me to chase him toward the door, grab his collar, wallop him on the nose, then throw him out the door. All of these exertions left me with a wounded left shoulder. Seriously, it's been about an hour and my shoulder is killing me.
Sometimes I open up a tab in firefox and do a quick google search on something I don't want to forget, or want to look into more, or want to blog about - this leads to a long row of tabs that I don't use regularly, and then when I open a new one to quickly look up something, I end up being shuffled way to the end, and then have to scroll way back to what I was originally using.
These tabs often remain in my browser for weeks or months. At some point I will go back and, while looking through them, end up closing some of them, or finally doing something about others of them.
Here are a few things that have been using up tab space:
The tumult and the shouting dies; The captains and the kings depart. Still stand thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget, lest we forget.
- Rudyard Kipling
Weird youtube videos:
the trololo man
a Russian news clip explaining the trololo man if you don't want to watch it all, at least watch the part from 2:13 to 2:25
you might need to hit the 'cc' button on the bottom of the player to see the translated subtitles, they explain that the song he was supposed to sing had lyrics that were banned by the Russian government for whatever reason, so he had to 'hahahahaha' and 'lalalalala' the whole time.
a sweet video by the trololo man himself he seems like such a nice man.
again, translation subtitles when you hit the 'cc' button on the bottom of the player
Another quote that I didn't want to forget: 'Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.' - Eleanor Roosevelt A great moment in the TV show 'House.' In an episode I saw last week (not a new one), House, Foreman and Chase went to a karaoke bar and sang 'Midnight Train to Georgia' complete with choreography. It was awesome. I never did find a great video of it though. Most of the videos I found were still pictures while the singing was going on, or behind-the-scenes footage - which at least shows some of what was actually filmed.
In addition to all of these, I have a few tabs open where I'm searching for jobs, one for a local massage place (my neck has been killing me since about August), gmail, and a few other less interesting, random ones. Oh, and the new dancing with the stars lineup - which includes the original karate kid! (:
And that's about it. For now.
I included all the links in case I ever needed to find one of these things again. (:
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. But I did go on an hour-long walk with my pups to and around the park. It's almost a crime to be inside on a day like this.
Oh, and I'm working on teaching Max to speak. Perhaps there will be a video of that in the near future...
I just got a notice for jury duty today. Currently I'm a 'Prospective Juror.' Unfortunately (fortunately?) there's nothing that makes me automatically exempt. The only things I can think of that make you exempt are: being a mother with young children at home (I think that's why my sister-in-law was exempt once. or maybe it's because she was a nursing mother...?) and... death.
This has brought to mind a few different movies.
First of all, 'The Rainmaker.' I love the jury selection part where after the good guys have faked a call that makes it look like they've tampered with the jury selection, Jon Voight pushes Randy Travis to admit that he talked with the lawyers (which he didn't), then Randy Travis leaps out of the jury box onto Jon Voight. (I tried finding a clip because that would be so much better than my description, but I failed. If you manage to find one, let me know.)
Second of all, the '3rd Rock from the Sun' episode where John Lithgow's character gets selected for a jury. I've never actually seen the episode, but I saw the part where he's in the jury box freaking out and then says, 'You want the truth?! Well I can't handle the truth!' Pretty funny.
And lastly, 'Runaway Jury.' (This is where the mind-reeling comes in.) My mind is just reeling with what could happen. After seeing John Cusack in action, the possibilities are limitless... (:
In other news:
Today Max got in trouble. He didn't listen to me at all when I was calling him in from the yard to get him to stop barking at a passing dog and their owner. When he finally did come (after they were gone) I beat him a bit (nothing abusive, promise), got him inside and made him sit and then lie down next to me while I ignored him and worked on my computer.
This is what he did for the next 10 (or more) minutes:
just stared at me batting his freakishly long eyelashes at me
After a while (and after I forgave him), Dingo came over and joined in:
I heard about ice castles in Midway from a friend a few weeks ago. She got a group together to go see them, but I couldn't go. So I went this past Saturday (the last night it was opened) with another friend of mine.
They were beautiful, and we had so much fun walking around - and through - them.
Here are some pictures (that don't do them justice):
So... I'm turning 30 this year. THIRTY. I remember when my oldest sister turned 30 and I thought that was a long way off for me. Well, now I'm staring down the barrel of the gun that's shooting the number 30 out at me. I'm not freaking out about it yet... And I've thought of a way that would totally help me cope with turning 30.
I've had my eye on this cruise for about four years. I'm thinking it might be time to go. And I'm thinking that the perfect time to go would be on my birthday. Who would mind turning 30 while spending time on the Mediterranean?
I wouldn't mind. Not at all.
We'll see if it happens...
If not the cruise, then I'd *settle* for some time spent in Italy.
